BART system starts issuing bans against passengers

People who ride the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in California have to officially be on their best behavior beginning this Monday: a new law that lets transit police ban unruly passengers, troublemakers and even protestors starts this week.

Effective Monday, BART riders cited for any number of offenses
can be banned from boarding the 700-or-so train cars that regularly
transverse the San Francisco/Oakland area as part of one of the
largest mass-transit systems in the United States. As RT reported last week, policies enacted under the
recently passed State Assembly Bill 716 let BART cops issue
“prohibition orders” to passengers merely accused of breaking even
minor transit rules.

Any passenger cited or arrested on BART property for a felony
act including lewd and violent behavior can be issued a prohibition
order on the spot that strips them of their riding privileges for
anywhere from 30 days to an entire year. Lesser offenses carry
penalties too, though, and passengers cited three times in just as
many months for minor crimes can be banned from the BART as
well.

Because three citations in three months can warrant a
prohibition order, RT noted last week that political protesters
cited with “Willfully disturbing others on or in a system
facility or vehicle by engaging in boisterous or unruly
behavior” and “Willfully blocking the free movement of
another person in a system facility or vehicle” could be
subjected to the ban.

“AB 716 won't only target violent behavior,” local ABC
affiliate KGNO News acknowledged last week. “It can be applied
to protestors who have been arrested during free-speech
movements.”

The San Francisco Weekly has also divulged some of the other
acts deemed inappropriate by BART officials. “Assembly Bill 716,
which passed last year, allows BART to issue a ‘prohibition order,’
meaning it can (and will) ban anyone who commits a criminal offense
on BART property,” SF Weekly’s Erin Sherbert wrote on Monday.
“In other words, if you are busted holding up trains, assaulting
workers or commuters, being lewd and lascivious (masturbating),
selling drugs, scrawling missives on BART property, or just
bothering others, then you'll be walking home.”

Sherbert first warned of AB 716 in an article published back in
January, and at the time acknowledged that authorities hoped to
reverse a recent trend of escalating violent in BART stations with
the law. “BART has become a breeding ground for violence and bad
behavior,” she wrote. “In one recent case, a man pushed his
way into a booth and beat the station agent severely, according to
BART.”

Because the new law broadly allows authorities to issue
probation orders for comparably meager activity, though, opponents
are concerned that the slippery slope will carry protesters, the
homeless and other undesirables off the train, perhaps with
somewhat solid legal backing. BART has revealed an appeals process
to help people who may be wrongly issued prohibition orders and is
standing by their new policy despite concerns over possible
discrimination. On the topic of profiling, BART Police Chief Kenton
Rainey told NFO News, "As a person of color, I'm certainly
sensitive to those types of issues."

"Race is not an issue in this and it should not be one, nor
is geographic location of the BART stations. Again, this is system
wide," added Amalgamated Transit Union President Antonette
Bryant.